What do you call your Person? Just for fun

[hotcheesetoastie]

So I read an article today from a writer who was looking at what terms there are for her significant other that didn't stick that conveyed the stage they were at in their relationship. She referenced Margaret Atwood, who had been with her partner for 46 years. Margaret's partner passed away and Margaret put out a statement saying “We are devastated by the loss of Graeme, our beloved father, grandfather, and spouse”. She thought this was interesting as the couple weren't married.

"Ooh’, I thought, ‘interesting.’ As someone who also has a long-term (although at nine years we’re amateurs by comparison) non-husband, I’m always on the lookout for ways to describe our relationship to people, without the solid, easily-recognisable parameters of marriage and children. But even in 2019, in a dictionary brimming over with new ways to sum up the ever-shifting nuances of modern life, there aren’t many".

Ive been with my partner for 6 years and we have a mortgage and a dog together, but aren't engaged. I was just curious as to what you call you partners and thought it could be a fun chat topic :) I tend to just call him my boyfriend or partner to people. It conveys enough, but I agree with the writer of the article's frustration that boyfriend can mean you've been together for 4 weeks or 4 years and that it would be nice to have something that conveyed you had moved beyond getting to know each other and were serious about the relationship, just not married (the didn't sound business-like or too formal).

www.stylist.co.uk/long-reads/relationships-what-to-call-romantic-partner-boyfriend-girlfriend-long-term-couple/338181

The options the author gave were:

Spouse
Partner
Boyfriend/girlfriend
Other Half
Significant other
Baby daddy
Companion
Fella/the old lady
My darling
My person
Preferred human
Paramour
Husband
German - "Lebensgefährte”, which translates literally as “companion through life”.
Swedish - “sambo” - which neatly describes a couple who live together but aren’t married.
Irish - “mo chuisle” my pulse
simbelgefera - constant companion
Beloved Bedfellow
Headmatch

Husband. We are married. Before we married he was my ‘partner’.

I assumed ‘spouse’ meant you were legally married to the other person.

My first husband was my boyfriend, then partner, then husband.

My second husband didn't have a reference (he wasn't a boy!), then partner, the husband.

I've currently got a "the bloke I'm seeing".

Can't see pita up there...

I call mine husband even though we aren't married. I'm a native Spanish speaker and in Spanish we have the word "marido" which is vague and can mean both married or unmarried. As I dislike the word partner I just go by husband is nobody business but ours of we're actually married or not

T'other half for us!!
Will be husband next year.
Depends who I'm speaking to as I will refer to him as my fiance sometimes!

Knobhead.

I use boyfriend /partner. Though to me partner means living together not married, and we live apart.
Otherwise I avoid it and refer to them by name.

Partner, but occasionally “baby daddy” as a joke.

I love the Scottish term "bidey-in" meaning live in partner.

I was just coming on to day bidey-in. It's such a lovely term.

I once read something that said an old word for a romantic partner is "feere" - ungendered and saying nothing about legal status.

I think we should start using this and bring it back.

C u next Tuesday comes to mind at moment

Grumpy git

I really detest the phrase 'other half'. It puts my teeth on edge. I think it's because my feminist hackles rise that the suggestion that a woman is half a person without a man.

I judge anyone who uses this phrase.

Other half to other people. I dislike the word fiancee.

I call him mate a lot

Haha x post @TellItLikeItReallyIs! Sorry!

We are engaged but rarely ise fiance. Normally Partner or Other half

I always call him by boyfriend even though we've been together for eight years, have a child and are engaged. I think partner makes me sound like I'm embarrassed I'm not married and fiancé sounds wanky.

Partner to others and I just call him by his name most of the time or babe in the context of him doing something nice etc “Aww, babe. That’s so sweet” kind of thing. We aren’t married and honestly I can’t be bothered planning or having a wedding at all.

He calls me his 'Little Shit' 😍 and I call him a 'Loveable Asshole'. Its newish so I don't like using any titles but he does call me his woman.☻

The dearly beloved

Honey-puff 😂

He's my husband but I call him Beaky

In public : Partner.

In private : Old Git.